


Hufflepuff Pride

by miss_whimsy



Series: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps [1]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Hufflepuff Aaron, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, Slytherin Robert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 03:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8695012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_whimsy/pseuds/miss_whimsy
Summary: Aaron Dingle is heading off to Hogwarts for the first time.





	

At five minutes to eleven on the first of September, Aaron hugged his mother goodbye, and stepped onto the Hogwarts Express for the first time, into a compartment with just one occupant.

"Can I sit here?" he asked the girl, who looked up from her magazine with a smile and nodded.

"Are you a first year too?" she asked holding out her hand. "I'm Victoria."

"Aaron," Aaron said, shaking her hand politely.

He looked back out of the window as the whistle blew and waved to his mother, who was smiling and crying and wringing her hands. Aaron forced a bright smile onto his face for her and waved until he couldn't see her anymore.

"Are you Muggle-born?" Victoria asked quietly and when Aaron looked back at her she was biting her lip as though she shouldn't have asked at all.

"I don't know what that means," Aaron said and Victoria relaxed slightly.

"That means you are. Muggles are non-magical."

Aaron nodded. "My mum's not. She was surprised when the letter arrived. So was I."

Victoria grinned. "I've never met any Muggles my age before. Not that you are, I suppose."

"Is it a bad thing?" Aaron asked, feeling nervous again about where he was headed. "Professor Longbottom came and talked to me and mum. He said there'd be plenty of people like me."

"Oh, there are," Victoria assured him. "There's nothing wrong with it at all. I think it's brilliant."

Aaron didn't feel particularly brilliant, but Victoria seemed nice and he started to feel a little more comfortable. Maybe he'd actually made a friend.

The compartment door slid open and a very tall, much older boy with blonde hair stepped inside, pulling his trunk behind him.

"I thought you were sitting with your friends," Victoria said to him, jumping up to help him lift the case onto the rack above their heads.

"Well I'd rather sit with you," the boy said, though he wasn't really a boy, Aaron could see now that he'd turned around. He was older, broad shoulders filling out his green jumper; he looked strong and fit. Aaron's heart gave a little skip. "Who's this?" he said, when he sprawled out next to Victoria, his eyes giving Aaron a quick once over. Aaron had a feeling that this man, whoever he was, could read him like a book.

"This is Aaron," Victoria said. "Aaron this is my brother, Robert. He's in his last year."

"Nice to meet you, Aaron," Robert said and kicked his feet up on the seat next to where Aaron was sitting.

"He's Muggle-born," Victoria told Robert.

"Vic, I've told you, you're not supposed to ask. It's rude."

"But he needs to know things," Victoria argued. "How is he going to know if someone doesn't tell him?"

"Uh, _he_ is still here," Aaron piped up, annoyed, though he found couldn't hold onto it when Robert smiled at him.

"Ah, you're going to be a little spitfire, aren't you?"

Aaron wanted to say that he wasn't a “little" anything, but he didn't know why it was so important that Robert knew that, so he kept his mouth shut.

Victoria apologised and Aaron shrugged. They started talking about other things.

"Do you know about the houses?" Victoria asked an hour into their journey. "Did Professor Longbottom tell you?"

"No," Aaron said, shaking his head. "I mean, he told me there were houses. I can't remember..."

"There are four," Victoria said, leaning forward excitedly. "Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin."

Aaron nodded. "Okay."

"They put this hat on your head..."

"Oh Merlin, no, you're telling it wrong," Robert interrupted. "It's not boring,” he told Aaron. “I promise."

"You tell it then, Victoria snapped.

"Fine," Robert said and moved across the compartment to sit next to Aaron, who suddenly felt too hot, squirming under Robert's full focused attention. "They take you into the Great Hall, where you eat all your meals. It's the most beautiful room in the castle. Make sure you look up when you walk in. It'll take your breath away."

Aaron nodded, watching Robert's lips as he spoke. He saw them curl up into a smile and looked back up to his eyes. Robert winked at him.

"They sit you down on a stool at the front and they place the Sorting Hat on your head. That hat has been around for hundreds of years and it can see into your soul."

Victoria kicked Robert's leg and he laughed.

"Stop scaring him."

"Don't be silly, I'm not scaring you, am I, Aaron?"

Aaron shook his head, but if he were honest with himself he was terrified. A hat that could see his soul and would then decide, what? Where Aaron was supposed to be? What if he wasn't supposed to be at Hogwarts at all? What if there'd been some huge mistake and he'd have to go home and disappoint his mum and never see Robert again.

The last thought made him blush and look down at his lap. Or Victoria, he thought. He wouldn’t see Victoria again and have friends like other normal children did.

"Hey," Robert said, his kind tone making Aaron look back up at him. "It's really nothing to worry about. The hat will just have a search about in your head and decide which house you're supposed to be in. Like Vic will get put in Hufflepuff, because she's a goody-two-shoes."

Victoria kicked him again.

"What house are you in?" Aaron asked, unsure why his mouth had dried out and his voice sounded so scratchy and weird.

"Slytherin," Robert said proudly. "All the cool kids are."

"And all the evil kids," Victoria said, sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"There are no evil kids in Slytherin," Robert protested. "Stop stereotyping."

"Well, Hufflepuffs aren't all boring either."

"I've yet to meet an interesting Hufflepuff," Robert said. "And that'll stand when you're in there too."

Victoria launched herself at Robert with a yell and Aaron watched with a smile as they descended into a tickle fight.

"Stop, stop, stop," Robert begged from the floor a couple of minutes later, gasping for breath and still giggling in a way that was doing unfortunate things to Aaron's insides.

"Say I'm not boring," Victoria insisted.

"You're not boring."

Victoria climbed off her brother and grinned at Aaron as she sat back down. Robert pulled himself back up into his seat next to Aaron with a matching smile.

"You'll be fine," Robert said and it took Aaron a moment to realise that Robert was talking to him again. "Gryffindors are brave idiots, Hufflepuffs are sweet idiots, Ravenclaws are smart idiots and Slytherins are ambitious idiots.

"Well you're definitely an idiot," Vic said. "Give me some money."

"Why?"

"So I can get some chocolate and pumpkin juice for me and Aaron." She held out her hand and Robert deposited a few gold coins into it. Vic grinned and ran out into the corridor.

"Those are galleons, right?" Aaron asked. "The gold ones?"

Robert nodded. "Don't worry, you'll pick it up. There’s a lot of Muggle-born witches and wizards at school. If you need to ask anything then Vic will help you. Or if Vic’s not there then I can help. Some people might want to hate you for being Muggle-born but just remember they're the ones in the wrong. And if you need someone to bash heads together, I can be your big brother as well as Vic's this year if you like."

Aaron's heart turned over this time and he wanted to tell Robert that he didn't want to be his brother, but he didn’t know why. It was a good thing, wasn't it? Robert offering him protection. Friendship, of a sort. He’d never had those things before. It was nice. He nodded and smiled and hoped the sorting hat would put him in Slytherin so he could be close to Robert, just for one year.

Vic pushed the door open again a minute later, her arms full of sweets and bottles, but she looked furtive. "Rebecca's coming," she said quietly and Aaron felt Robert stiffen up beside him. "I can pull the blinds."

"She'll just come in anyway," Robert sighed. "Time to face the music, I suppose." He stood up and switched places with Victoria. "Good luck at the sorting, Aaron. See you later Vic." With that he stepped out into the corridor and pulled the door shut, just as a pretty blonde with a green ribbon in her hair rushed up to Robert's side and gripped his arm.

"Girlfriend," Vic said, rolling her eyes. "She's a nightmare."

Aaron listened to Vic describing the sweets and chocolates she handed him, but his attention kept drifting to the corridor where Robert and Rebecca were arguing. 

“They fight all the time,” Vic said when she finally noticed. “I don’t know why he bothers.” She laughed and shook her head a moment later when Robert ducked down and shut Rebecca up with a kiss. “Well apart from that.”

She looked back at Aaron and noticed him looking quickly away. “Do you think she’s pretty?”

“No,” Aaron said immediately. “No. Definitely not as pretty as… as you.”

Vic smiled and handed him another chocolate frog card. “Harry Potter.”

“Who’s he?”

 

The sorting wasn’t quite as bad as Aaron had feared and when he looked out into the Great Hall and saw Vic waving madly from the Hufflepuff, and Robert smiling broadly from the Slytherin table, he felt like maybe this thing - this being a wizard thing - was actually going to be a really great adventure.

He ran straight to Vic when the Sorting Hat placed him in Hufflepuff and she squeezed him tight before starting to introduce him to his new Housemates.

“Oi, Vic!” a voice shouted from the other side of the room. “Victoria!” A grape came flying out of nowhere and bounced off Aaron’s head. They both looked over to the Gryffindor table where one of the boys was standing on the bench, looking half-guilty and half-amused.

“Sorry mate,” he yelled. “I was aiming for her.”

“Get lost, Adam,” she shouted back. 

“Don’t be like that,” Adam called back. “We’ve got History of Magic together tomorrow. Are you going to sit with me?”

“He comes from the same village as me,” Victoria told Aaron. “He’s an idiot.”

Another grape bounced off Aaron’s head and he looked back over at Adam, who waved at him. 

“Don’t let her tell you any lies about me. I’m amazing.”

Aaron laughed and shouted back, “I bet you are.”

 

Victoria looked extra pleased with herself as she walked with Aaron to the Hufflepuff common room.

“Are you alright?” she asked before they split up to go to their separate dormitories. “It’s got to be a weird first day.”

“I’m great,” Aaron told her. “I met you didn’t I?”

“And Rob and Adam. Three friends already. Not a bad start.”

“Not really no.”

She darted forward and hugged him again quickly. “It’s only going to get better from here,” she said.

He watched her run through the door to the girls’ bedrooms and turned towards the boys’ door with a smile, feeling for the first time that he might have actually found where he belonged.

**Author's Note:**

> So this went through a lot of different iterations to get here and I'm not sure it couldn't have been better if I'd taken it a different way, but I have a lot of headcanons about this AU which will hopefully make it an interesting read at least.


End file.
